Robin Gosens and Davide Zappacosta scored well-worked team goals, as Atalanta inflicted a third consecutive defeat on Sassuolo.
La Dea had started the season sluggishly, missing Luis Muriel and Hans Hateboer, but Marten de Roon was able to play after his four-match ban and Teun Koopmeiners had his first start. Alessio Dionisi made six changes after a disappointing home defeat to Torino.
It took barely three minutes to break the deadlock, as Ruslan Malinovskyi whipped a low ball across the face of goal from the right, it went past Duvan Zapata, but not Robin Gosens.
Sassuolo really should’ve equalised on 12 minutes when Gregoire Defrel pounced on a Merih Demiral error and was clear on goal only to blast over the bar.
Only desperate Mert Muldur defending prevented Gosens meeting a Davide Zappacosta low ball at the back post, then Malinovskyi fired over after good work from Matteo Pessina.
Pessina wasted another golden opportunity on the counter, scuffing wide one-on-one with Andrea Consigli.
The second goal was classic Atalanta, a quick passing move involving Duvan Zapata, Koopmeiners and Malinovskyi, until Zappacosta put his angled drive into the far bottom corner.
Sassuolo did get one back, as Domenico Berardi cut inside past Gosens and drilled a powerful strike into the near bottom corner from distance, though it seemed to surprise Juan Musso.
Straight after the restart, Defrel really should’ve equalised for the Neroverdi, but was falling backwards as the Georgios Kyriakopoulos cross came in and his free header was somehow wide from six yards.
Josip Ilicic came off the bench and immediately forced a save from Consigli with his trusty left foot, as did Roberto Piccoli.
Atalanta 2-1 Sassuolo
Gosens 3 (A), Zappacosta 37 (A), Berardi 44 (S)
It’s good that they can scrap out wins like this (and against Salernitana, and even Torino), as it is the mark of a good team. Having said that, they could easily have just 3 points out of 15 right now. They need to shape up for the big boys in the coming weeks.